Stone Arches

I was drawn to stone arches long before I built my first brick oven nine years ago.  An arch, contained or barrel vaulted in an extremely strong structure.   It also echoes the vault of the sky and our general sense that we live in a round (not flat) world.

On my way to an oven build in Winchester, NH, I passed the stone arch bridges in Stoddard.  Built without mortar, these bridges have lasted  almost 200 years and although modern traffic doesn't pass over them, they appear intact.

Each time I build an oven, I am incorporating the arch, in the mouth and face, and circularly in the dome.  It makes the oven durable into the unforeseeable future.

2000 year-old Bakery Oven in Pompeii, Italy

6  year-old TBO 54" oven at Pietree Orchard in Sweden, Maine